VOL. 55 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 P33
& Hines Harley-Davidson's
Chip Ellis, and Steve Johnson.
After the final round, he wasn't
afraid to voice his opinion about
the presence of Ellis, who was
added to the Factory Harley
squad as a test rider for Indy and
the upcoming Countdown to the
Championship events.
"That's not the first time they
[Vance & Hines] brought out
a third bike out and the same
outcome happened the last time
they brought it out," Tonglet said.
"They can bring as many bikes
as they want and we're just going
to knock them down one by one.
They [Harley] are labeled the
kings, but we can outrun them,
and we can beat them, but we
have to be perfect. They haul
butt in qualifying but on race day
anything can happen and usually
they slow down on race day and
we tend to speed up. We had a
great run to the championship in
2010 but this time, we're going
to do better than we did in 2010
and we're going to come out
victorious again."
Krawiec nearly won his
second-straight Indy title and
third overall but came up short
in the final round. After qualify-
ing in the third spot, he opened
eliminations with a win against
Tonglet's teammate, White Al-
ligator Suzuki's Jerry Savoie.
Krawiec stopped teammate
Andrew Hines in the quarter-
finals and then topped Lucas
Oil EBR's Hector Arana Jr. The
biggest upset of the day came
in round one when low qualifier
Matt Smith, who had run 6.81 at
over 199 mph to take the pole,
slowed against number-16 seed
Jimmy Underdahl.
"We just didn't get the job
done today. That's about it,"
Krawiec said. "It sucks because
you only get one chance a year
to win Indy and this is
our biggest event. I re-
ally can't worry about
it too much because
I've had a good sea-
son and Drew [Hines]
and I finished the
regular season as the
top two riders in the
Countdown, which is
always our goal. We're
in a good spot to bring
another championship
to Harley-Davidson and
Vance & Hines."
As the final event in the regu-
lar season, the U.S. Nationals
also set the field for the upcom-
ing Countdown to the Champi-
onship playoffs. The 10 riders
who will compete for the cham-
pionship at the next six events
include Krawiec, Hines, Tonglet,
Arana Jr., Savoie, Matt Smith,
Scotty Pollacheck, Steve John-
son, Angie Smith, and Angelle
Sampey. Sampey finished the
regular season tied with Jimmy
Underdahl but was awarded the
playoff berth on a tiebreaker,
which is the most regular season
round wins. She was one-better
than Underdahl in that category.
Kevin McKenna
FINAL
1. LE Tonglet (Suz)
2. Eddie Krawiec (H-D)
Tonglet and team
celebrate the big win at
Lucas Oil Raceway at
Indianapolis.
